CARDIFF CITY manager Malky Mackay believes Peter Whittingham is a more complete player than ever, even though the midfield creator has gone his longest spell ever without a goal for the club.

CARDIFF CITY manager Malky Mackay believes Peter Whittingham is a more complete player than ever, even though the midfield creator has gone his longest spell ever without a goal for the club.

Whittingham has not found the net in 20 games and last registered a goal when he fired home from the penalty spot in the Bluebirds’ victory over Watford on October 23.

But, along with frontman Heidar Helguson, the play-maker remains Cardiff’s joint-top scorer in the Championship with seven strikes.

Furthermore, he has missed only one league game so far this campaign, a victory at Birmingham on New Year’s Day.

But Mackay is unconcerned by Whittingham’s lean spell.

“Peter is someone who over the whole of this season has been incredibly consistent for us,” said Mackay.

“He’s not a forward, he’s a midfielder and if you get the bonus of some goals from a midfielder then that is great.

“But that is not the first thing I look for from Peter. Every Saturday I don’t look to see if Peter Whittingham has scored.

“Maybe I differ in that view from a few other people.

“I see the value of him. I see his maturity now. I see the difference in the boy now from the boy I spoke to the first day I took over at Cardiff. They are completely different people to be honest.

“Both myself and him realise now that he has improved as a player over these last 18 months.

“There’s a lot of sides to his game now compared to someone, who before maybe sat on the periphery of a team and when it got into his area he did something with it.

“Now he is in the middle of everything that goes on for the whole 90 minutes. Now he’s even more of a team player than he ever was.”

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Since his arrival from Aston Villa for £350,000 back in January 2007, Whittingham has seen the role he has been asked to play for Cardiff evolve.

At first, he was employed out wide before being tucked inside by former Cardiff boss Dave Jones in a role that was still very much a forward-thinking one.

In the 2009-10 campaign Whittingham was the Championship’s joint top-scorer with 20 league goals in the regular season. Ironically enough, he shared the honour with Nicky Maynard who was then with Bristol City, but is now at Cardiff, although he saw his season decimated by injury.

Under Mackay though, Whittingham has been asked to occupy a deeper position with more defensive responsibilities.

Many maintain the new role is nullifying the 28-year-old’s renowned creative flair and stopping him finding the net as often as he should.

And his 20-game barren spell is his longest in his six years in the Welsh capital.

But Mackay insists the lack of goals is of little concern and it is the overall performances that Whittingham brings to the Bluebirds which are important.

“I see the overall job that he does for our team both on the attacking side and the defensive side of things,” added Mackay.

“The few goals we have conceded over the last nine or 10 games, Peter has played a massive part in that. That is maybe something that people, choose to gloss over, but it is maybe something that people do not find sexy. It’s not the kind of thing that people talk about. He has been a major part of the lack of goals we’ve conceded.

“Also in that midfield area, Peter is someone who has built the game for us in the middle of the pitch. Again it might not be sexy, but I think back to the Bristol City game where Peter controlled the last 20 minutes and just slowed it down when he wanted to.

“He saw a lot of the ball and just dampened things down. Peter controlled the tempo of that game and there are not a lot of players around who can do that.”

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